


foundation

by bobtheacorn



Category: One Piece
Genre: Bepo and Robin both make a speaking appearance but they're mostly here for emotional support, Bepo is here to make ground shattering revelations, Gen, Minor Injuries, Well Robin is here to give Law a hard time, queer platonic relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 00:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14884376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobtheacorn/pseuds/bobtheacorn
Summary: Luffy is all bluster now, agitated, but comically so, "I was being nice to you!!""We're not friends," Law reaffirms, and he can't believe he's done this again.He has fallen so easily into Straw Hat's rhythm, and it is not even frightening to let himself get swept away in it. It's exhilarating, in its own way.//After Dressrosa's events, Law is figuring things out. Luffy is Luffy.





	foundation

**Author's Note:**

> _"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the **foundation.** It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."_ \- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

**i.**

The sky overhead is the dark, dark blue of early morning, an hour before sunrise. It is hedged with grey clouds that drift in and out of focus. They move, sluggish and heavy with the promise of snow. Law stares up at it, dazed, until he starts to piece together where he is, and why, and through the ache and numbness he feels thrumming in the rest of his body, his heart seizes.

Voices, distant at first, draw his attention to the ground.

Law doesn't know why he saves the bear.

He knows why it bothers him, seeing those boys merciless beat it when it doesn't even have the strength to get up or defend itself. He just doesn't know why he intervenes. It's not his style. Someone else pulls his numb feet and aching body forward; someone else finds his voice, raw and broken, and demands flatly, “Hey. Leave it alone.” He's got nothing left but that ready-for-death glare that always makes Baby 5 cry. Nothing left in this whole world other than his own hands.

After that?

He has Bepo.

He also has a propensity for sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong, and for tolerating things that he wouldn't have, in either of his previous lives.

  


**ii.**

Being surrounded by strangers is starting to get overwhelming, and Law doesn't like people as a general rule on the best of days.

Considering everything from Punk Hazard to here has been a high-stress situation for him, that he had to come to Dressrosa anticipating that he might never leave it, and yet here he is, still breathing, three days later? Everything is overwhelming. His own heartbeat is overwhelming. Voices are overwhelming. Too many warm bodies cramped into the former toy soldier's former home, which is little more than a one room cottage, is overwhelming. It feels too real, and, disconcertingly, not real at all.

So Law takes advantage of the quiet, clear night and sits outside on the roof, alone.

On the plateau above the ruins of Dressrosa the stars are bright overhead, and in the pale light Law can clearly make out the tumultuous shape of the sunflower field boxing them in on all sides, a sea in and of itself that has an ebb and flow, a rush of sound like ocean waves.  There's something peaceful about it, even if he can still hear the laughter and resulting clamour from inside the cottage. It's distant, barely on the edge of his awareness, and Law allows his mind to drift until a scuffing on the roof behind him draws him back to the present.

A piece of old hatching has broken away and goes skipping down over the eaves, disappearing from sight with a dull _thump;_ he hadn't even heard Straw Hat climbing up, and then the younger man is settling down just within Law's reach, legs folded up against his torso, bandaged arms circled around them, grinning at him in the dark.

He's conscious, coherent, and not simultaneously stuffing his face for once. He laughs softly,

"Found you, Traffy~"

"I wasn't exactly hiding, Straw Hat," Law says, amused (relieved) despite himself.

"Good cuz you're bad at it."

Luffy laughs like this is an old joke between them - as if he didn't come barreling into Law's life less than a week ago and just finished shaping it into something new and unimaginable, something that still has Law reeling. This is what having a future feels like.  It has spread like a balm over every ache he has inside and it is wild how weightless he feels in the wake of it.

It isn't like Luffy to be sitting quietly on the fringes of a celebration, though - even a small one shared among friends. He doesn't have many opens wounds, but such severe fatigue and bruising are deep enough that it will take time for even Luffy to bounce back from them. Law can provide something for the pain, and for a moment he wonders if that's why he's been sought out. He watches Luffy silently for a while. His head is tipped back, looking up into the midnight burst of stars above them, the unfamiliar patchwork of constellations. His straw-hat is resting behind his shoulders, rustling slightly, and the same wind that moves the sea slips in between them.

He looks genuinely at ease despite his unfamiliar surroundings and the hard-won battle, and Law is struck again by how young Luffy is, how young he still seems despite the trauma he's endured.

"Anything hurt?" Law asks.

"Nah," Luffy says, smiling.  He looks at Law, eyes bright and sharp with starlight. He waits a beat, then asks, "How about you?"

It sounds like a straightforward question, but for some reason it doesn't feel like one. Law considers his answer carefully, meeting Luffy's gaze. He thinks about how he has felt the past thirteen years, clinging to life with his fingernails, gritting his teeth, desperate and angry and trying not to be bitter and trying so hard not to let the few good memories he has all go to waste. Some of the bitterness is still holding onto him - he has lost _so much_ \- but it has become a small thing settled in his veins, and Law is not afraid that it is there anymore, afraid that it's all he's ever going to amount to.

He doesn't feel that burning need to pull it out and stir it up again, to stoke it into an inferno that he would have let consume him body and soul three days ago. He had every intention of dying for this and now - because of Straw Hat - he doesn't have to, and he doesn't know how to feel. He feels sort of quiet inside, for the first time in a long time, and it is not a bad thing.

"No," Law finally says, "Not anymore."

That secret grin is back as Luffy chuckles.

"Good."

He turns his face toward the sea, breathes in the heady scent of sunflowers, and exhales, relaxing against his bent knees.  He pushes his face in between them. A while after that, he sighs, "This is nice."

"Don't get too comfortable," Law says.  He's looking across the field at the dots of light where the castle is still standing, a silhouette above it's ruined country, and the harbor beyond where a battleship is sitting idle. He isn't especially fussed about the Marines, and he knows Luffy isn't either, but he thinks one of them should be pragmatic about their situation. "We should leave before Fujitora makes up his mind about what they're going to do about us."

Luffy snickers.

"That wasn't what I meant."

Something in Law goes _Oh._ Another something in him decides right then that if he glances over and finds that Straw Hat is looking at him, Law is going to send him flying for doing something so tooth-rottingly sentimental as turning this into a Moment. Law levels the other pirate with a dead stare, prepared just for that.  Luffy's head is tipped against his knees, face turned toward him. His eyes are squeezed closed by a broad smile that is unlike the feral, eager grins that Law is used to seeing, all teeth and pure intent.

That something in Law quiets again, like a hand clapping down.

"What then?" Law prompts, watching him.

Luffy's shoulders pull up, relax. That smile doesn't change at all.

"I'm kinda worried about the others." The admission comes seemingly out of nowhere, polarized to his previous statement, but Law supposes it's what has been on his mind finally coming to light. "About Nami and Sanji and Chopper and Brook.  I know they can take care of themselves, but I don't like not being there incase they need me." He laughs, "And I keep starting fights with really strong guys. And we just got back together and now we're split up again. I don't like it. So I'm worried about 'em."

"I'm not worried about you, though," Luffy goes on, surprising Law enough that he sits up straighter, pays closer attention, "I'm not worried about us splitting up, after Kaido, or Zou, or whenever that's gonna be. You're just as strong as me, and you've got your own crew to look after and your own stuff to do. And we're gonna be rivals then."

Luffy grins, conspiratorial, challenging, "That's pretty cool, right?"

Even though he's the one that initiated it, Law has had some obvious misgivings about forming this alliance. Despite this, Luffy has been full tilt since the very beginning.  He has never treated Law as anything other than an equal. In the end, he has run all over Law's plans, and disregarded his admittedly thin attempts to keep things professional between them by not bogging down their objective with unnecessary emotional baggage - but he has dug right down to the heart of what Law wanted all along, and planted something stronger in its place.

"I thought you said we were friends," Law says cautiously, not because he wants to remind Straw Hat of the misunderstanding, but because Law is surprised he changed his mind.

"We can be friends and be rivals too," Luffy says, as if everything is just that simple for him. Maybe it is. How many times has he rocked the foundation with his voice and his will alone? How many times will he do it again, just because he _wants_ to? "I'm already friends with you different than I am with the others. It's fine if it's different."

"We're not friends, Straw Hat."  Not saying it now will make it seem as if Luffy has won, and Law isn't about to allow him to gain that sort of ground, gratitude or not. "This is an alliance and nothing more."

Luffy is undaunted by this answer.

He laughs and looks away, "Whatever."

Law's room blooms out.

Luffy perks up, aware if it, but he doesn't have time to react before Law moves his fingers and switches Luffy with the lid of the water barrel catching rain at the side of the house. The lid clatters onto the roof beside Law, spinning until it is still.  The splash and gurgle from below, to his left, is satisfying enough without the sound of the water barrel rocking, tipping, and crashing to the ground along with Luffy's frantic movements. The water rushes out, and Luffy is wheezing, sputtering, "That was a jerk move...! I wasn't ready!!"

"You should be on your guard, Straw Hat," Law calls down to him, leaning forward to peer over the eaves as Luffy's sopping wet footfalls squelch away from the house, bringing him into Law's sight again.

He is all bluster now, agitated, but comically so, "I was being nice to you!!"

"We're not friends," Law reaffirms, and he can't believe he's done this again.

He has fallen so easily into Straw Hat's rhythm, and it is not even frightening to let himself get swept away in it. It's exhilarating, in its own way. Luffy sticks his tongue out at him, pulls his cheeks out at the sides and stretches his face into something macabre. Law laughs - and it is so unlike the deathgrip he is used to holding on with - he has gained _so much_ \- and he feels _free._

  


**iii.**

Law doesn't find the time to say it on Dressrosa. Too much is happening in the aftermath of Doflamingo's descent - Luffy is barely conscious throughout his recovery, and then there is the escape, and the celebrations, and the goodbyes, and more celebrations. Out on the open sea, once things have begun to simmer down, Law makes time before they reach Zou.

For appearances sake, he goes through the motions of checking the injuries of the rest of the Straw Hat crew first, which  mostly entails asking the men if they're alright and taking a look at Nico-ya's mostly-healed back, avoiding her soft laughter and pointed looks when she asks what the occasion is. Afterward he finds Luffy exactly where he expects to: sitting on the figurehead of Bartolomeo's embarrassing ship, staring straight ahead.

"Straw Hat." Luffy whips around to face him, sea-spray hair clinging to his cheeks and mouth, stretched into a wide grin. "Check-up."

Those narrow shoulders droop, his face falling.

"Aw whaaaat."

"It's not a request," Law says, and waits.

Luffy doesn't like being told what to do. They're similar in this way, stubborn. They've found a miraculously good flow in such a short amount of time; both know when to yield to the other, when digging in their heels won't do them any good. Luffy rolls to his feet and drops from the figure head, galloping across Zoro's outstretched legs while the swordsman snores sprawled out on the deck, indifferent to the activity around him.

Law has already cleared out the small cabin Bartolomeo's crew of mismatched landlubbers are using as a medical bay. There are bandaids and whiskey in the place of real gauze and disinfectant, and little else in the way of equipment. The sailor and doctor in Law are distantly outraged, but if these idiots die out here because of their own incompetence then it's no business of his.

Luffy hops up onto the bench, legs kicking, and presents his right arm first. Law unwinds the bandages around his bicep and finds that his assumptions were correct - even the deepest of Doflamingo's string bites have mostly healed, leaving only several dozen off-colored lines striping Luffy's tanned skin. Frowning, Law turns Luffy's arm and rubs his thumb over the marks. He doesn't know if the fast recovery time is one of Luffy's unique physical properties or something he developed through sheer force of will, but neither would be surprising.

Law drops Luffy's arm, gestures to his tank top.

"Take this off."

Luffy complies, grabbing the neck and pulling it off over his head, revealing the bandages wrapping his torso.  Law undoes these with a bit more care. The damage here is slightly worse, but it's healing quickly as well. Law cleans the puncture wound as best as he can with what he has. Luffy's nose wrinkles at the smell of the alcohol and he digs his toes in against Law's thighs, pushing when it stings at first contact, but he doesn't squirm or complain about the pain. He's even still while Law maneuvers ones of the larger bandaids over it.

After that, Law does a general physical examine.

He doesn't mind touching people as long as it's in this capacity - it's one of the few things he is good at that he doesn't have bad memories of, that he doesn't hate - and Luffy doesn't care about personal boundaries, so Law is allowed to poke and prod him however he likes.  He touches Luffy's collarbone, chest, ribcage, the latter of which earns him a huffing giggle and two hands clapping down over his until he firmly tells Luffy to stop; feels the impression of his bones, solid, working beneath sinew and muscle. He gropes his way down Luffy's arms, feels his legs.

In a normal body, he would be looking for bruised muscles, tendons that have started to draw, fractured bones, ruptured blood vessels. In Luffy, he finds none of these things.  He is just as springy and healthy as he was before Dressrosa, before the fight with Doflamingo.

Law wants that to ease his mind, and yet it doesn't.

"That new technique you're using," Law says, squeezing the muscle of Luffy's forearm. There's a scar here too in the form of teeth marks, left by repetitive use - the exact same marks that are on his thumbs from where he bites down straight to bone, because he needs “size” as well as “tenacity”. Law swallows back what he actually wants to say, and dodges instead because that is easier than being so direct, "Your crew doesn't know what it's doing to your body, do they?"

Luffy makes a face and a noise, low in the back of his throat, half-guised as a whine, that Law rightfully interprets as _That's none of your business._ He tightens his grip anyway, notices the way Luffy's shoulders square and his chin tips up as he meets Law's eyes. He's more still than before, not fidgeting. His mouth is set in a firm line.

Normally, Law would leave it alone. But he keeps thinking about how Luffy was lurching bonelessly, barely able to get himself up off the ground, his skin overly warm, damp and feverish. It reminds him of how Luffy was after the Paramount War, fighting off the anesthesia and any attempts to hold him down with a body and mind too broken to coordinate themselves properly, too bent on a single, futile task, and whatever reservations Law has about crossing that line evaporate.

"You made it my business back on Dressrosa."

Law's fingertips are pressed into the pulse at Luffy's wrist, and he can feel it quickening. Luffy's face doesn't give anything away, and Law continues, dropping his voice, "You didn't strike me as the type to keep secrets, Straw Hat."

"It's not a secret," Luffy says, "I'm not supposed to use that gear."

"There's a pretty obvious reason for that."

 _You're killing yourself_.

"I know."

His heart beat has steadied out again. Resolve, surety, acceptance. And Law's own heart kicks in his chest. Defiance, dread.

It isn't his place to argue this.

"You should tell your crew," he says. Luffy's hand squeezes into a fist, the tendons in his wrist popping. Law lets go, and Luffy's hand hangs in the air between them, uncertain. It's his choice. "At the very least, you should tell your ship's doctor. The person that's going to be taking care of you should know what they're dealing with afterward, if you have to use it again."

Luffy opens his hand, flexes it.

"You know."

That hangs in the air too.

"I'm not always going to be around, Straw Hat."

Luffy makes another noise that means he wants to disagree - Law thinks nothing of being able to decipher his unintelligible noises - but he doesn't outright. Maybe he sees the fairness in this. Luffy is doing something that Law doesn't like, and Law will inevitably do something that Luffy doesn't like: He'll leave. Maybe that's the trouble with standing on equal ground. They both have to be okay with that sometimes, okay with each others choices, whether they like them or not.

  


**iv.**

Law doesn't like physical affection.

He tolerates it from Bepo, who was still harboring those instinctive habits of his home country when they met ten years ago. They only weaned him out of the vocal idiosyncrasies because he wasn't hearing them back, and after a while he dropped them altogether; there was no breaking him from nuzzling, licking, and biting every morning, or whenever they were apart any length of time. Being asked to stop caused the bear more upset than Law thought it was worth, and he only broke the skin once on accident, so after a while, Law just got used to it.

With Straw Hat, he feels like he hasn't quite managed to dodge cannon fire. One would think being manhandled and bodily dragged all over Dressrosa would have desensitized him to Luffy's intrusive gestures - and it did, for the most part. He doesn't flinch with surprise or lean away as much whenever Luffy reaches for him in excitement.

Now, Luffy grabs his shoulders from behind and hoists himself up while Law is sitting at the bench table in Bartolomeo's galley, weight bearing down on him, knees braced against his back.  His shirt falls open around Law's head, encasing him in Luffy's presence, his warmth and his scent. And Law only lowers the newspaper slightly, glancing up in annoyance.

"What, Straw Hat," he says flatly.

"Nothin'."

Luffy draws the word out of a hum, makes it longer than it should be, and Law doesn't believe him for a second. Luffy's fingers press into Law's collarbone, tip his shoulders back as Luffy shifts his weight forward and higher. He flattens his legs against Law's back, hips against his shoulder blades, and cocks his head, squinting at the paper. Law suspects that he's scanning for pictures to glean some insight as to what Law might be reading, but this section doesn't have much to offer in the form of visual cues.

Law puts one hand on the corner of the table to steady them both, and scowls, "You're accosting me because you feel like it then?"

Luffy laughs, "I guess."

He curls, thighs pushing around Law's rib cage, under his arms; chest forcing Law's hat down over his eyes so that he has to reach up and pull it off.

This almost puts him in a bad mood.

"I'm bored is all," Luffy admits, whining suddenly. He withdraws his legs and does a single push-up, balanced on Law's shoulders. "The others are doing stuff."

"I'm sure if you asked, Bartolomeo would be more than happy to accommodate you."

"That rooster-headed guy's okay, but he cries all the time," Luffy sulks, "It's kinda like talking to Hancock, and I don't wanna marry him either."

That's a wild and mystifying leap to take. The tired way he says this makes it seem as if people are constantly asking for his hand, which is a hilarious concept all on its own.  Law smirks, and asks, "Do you get propositioned often, Straw Hat?"

Luffy grins down at him, does another deliberate push-up.

"Recently. You're the only one I accepted though."

Any amusement Law feels promptly drops into the bottom of his feet.

"This alliance is nothing like marriage, Straw Hat."

"Yeah, we didn't have a boring ceremony and vows, or a feast or anything." He sounds disappointed in the latter, tips his head as he looks down at Law. "Would you want to?"

"No. That's not what this is."

"Isn't it?"

_"No."_

Luffy hums and frowns, as if he's considering this. "Traffy, _you_ proposed to _me_."

"I offered you a _proposition_ , not a _proposal_."

"That's the same thing."

"No it isn't!"

Luffy drops to his feet, hands still resting on Law's shoulders. He moves one to scoop up Law's elbow and hauls him off the bench, toward the door with a determined, "Let's ask Robin!" Nico-ya is the very last person Law wants to ask. She is the one he trusts the least; their pasts are frighteningly alike, and he was old enough to remember hearing about Ohara and the demon child that survived it. Being one himself, he suspects what she's like. She loves Luffy in a way she has loved little else in this world and she indulges him in kind, often at the expense of others.

Law finds himself standing in front of her on the deck nonetheless, under the shade of a large umbrella, at a small round table that Bartolomeo's too-eager-to-please crew has unearthed and set up for her. She politely closes her book and listens to Luffy's half-assed explanation, and seems to give the ordeal quite a lot of thought - which, Law thinks, does not bode well for him.

"Strictly speaking, a proposal and a proposition are the same thing," she says.  Luffy looks at Law triumphantly, hand still viced around his elbow, and Law thinks this must be what it feels like for your spirit to leave your body out of sheer, screaming frustration. Nico Robin continues, smiling, "But a proposal of marriage is different than a proposition to form an alliance because they entail different things, Luffy."

Luffy makes a humming noise, frowning, attentive, and Robin elaborates for him as if he asked her to directly, "With marriage, you promise to stay with that person for the rest of your lives, no matter what obstacles you may face, through sickness and injury. With the alliance, you and Traffy are individual captain's of equal standing with the agreed upon goal of overwhelming Kaido."

Law can't help feeling that she has worded this deliberately just to screw with him. What he said to Cavendish while Luffy was fighting Doflamingo on his own…

Robin was there.

And, obviously, Robin remembers.

Law wishes he could say he was delirious with pain and blood loss at the time…. but he meant it. He was not going to walk away from that fight if Luffy didn't.  He was not going to survive again, through dumb chance, at the cost of someone else. He was not going to watch someone else die at Doflamingo's hands because of his foolish mistakes, because of his selfish choices; because he wasn't strong enough.

Luffy's hand slides from Law's elbow, startling him out of his thoughts. He grabs onto Law's wrist, instead, his grip fierce, and he grins, propping his free hand on his hip.

"I see," he says.

"Have I made things clear enough, captain?" Robin asks in that particular tone of voice that means she has said precisely what he wanted to hear and nothing more.

"Yup! Thanks a bunch!"

"I'm glad~"

Law looks down at where Luffy's hand is circling his wrist, and thinks that there is really no sense in arguing the point when he already knows that he is in this for long long haul, whether he admits it aloud or not. He supposes it's something else he's just going to have to get used to, and knows from experience that there are worse things than this.

  


**v.**

Law is cursing whatever decision brought him to this moment, specifically; whatever bizarre chain of events has culminated in Straw Hat sitting on his hips and pinning him down with his weight, with his hands locked around Law's elbows. The cushion underneath him is comfortable at least.  It broke his fall when Luffy flew into him without warning and Law didn't have much of a choice but to go down hard. The hike here basically sapped his stamina. He could make a room if he had to, but he doesn't _want_ to.  

Law settles for looking as annoyed as possible, glaring up at his captor.

"Get off, Straw Hat," he says, flexing his arms to test Luffy's grip. He should have no problem getting his left arm free, but the right one…. It's spasming again, uncooperative, and his fingers are numb from the small amount of pressure Luffy is putting on it, the sensation creeping up to his wrist. Luffy can probably feel how cold his skin is, the tremor in his muscles, and even with no medical knowledge to speak of he probably knows it isn't good.

It's probably why he blinks down at Law cautiously.

"Bepo said to hold you down."

"I also said to _be careful,"_ Bepo frets, exasperated and worried and wringing his big paws from the other side of the cushions as he comes stumbling up to the commotion, "Those injuries look serious…! I can't believe you brought the captain back to us in this condition, Straw Hat!! Shame on you!!”

“Sorry,” Luffy says, but he's grinning, like there's something endearing about your subordinate fussing over you.

"I said it's fine," Law says, "Get off, Straw Hat. I won't say it again.”

"Are you sure you don't want me to take a look?" Chopper asks, also fretting. He's standing beside Bepo, still sporting someone else's gaudy purple cape and pearls, carrying a medicine bag. "I really don't mind at all! And - they do look pretty serious."

Huddled around them, the rest of Law's crew starts throwing in their two cents, unasked, _"Just let him take a look, captain!" "C'mon, we were really worried about you!" "It'll only take a second!" "Do it for us, it will ease our minds!!"_  Luffy is grinning down at him, and seems to sense that compliance is inevitable when Law relaxes into his grip with a sigh that bleeds out with exhaustion, when he rolls his eyes.

Luffy lets go of his arms, sitting back on his hips.

“I really like your crew, Traffy ~!”

His crew of idiots react as if this is the best compliment they could have ever received, and Luffy only laughs in the face of their blushing and bowing and half-hearted rebuffs of, _“No one asked you, Straw Hat!”_ Bepo is looking particularly pleased, and Law has known the polar bear long enough to recognize that smug expression even though he hides it behind his paws. Law allows Straw Hat's tiny doctor to examine his arm, to make sure blood is circulating through the limb; allows him to clean up the stitching where it was severed, and apply some ointment to ease the spasming in his weak and aching muscles, and carefully rewrap the bandages down to his fingers.

(He doesn't think about the last time he sat in front of another doctor and asked for treatment.)

Law flexes his hand once Chopper is finished.

The bandages are firm, but loose.

Nearby, Luffy claps his hands against his thighs and straightens, grinning. Aside from Bepo he is the only other one that's hung around.

"See, that wasn't so bad~" he says, striding over and crouching beside Law.

Law levels him with a blank glare, hoping to convey just how annoyed he truly is over having to sit through this procedure. He doesn't know why he gives in so easily. He seems to be giving more and more the longer her spends in proximity to Straw Hat, and it's annoying, and not like him. The look on his face does absolutely nothing to phase Luffy in the slightest. He still takes Law's arm between his own calloused hands, as if to examine Chopper's work himself, fingers pressing carefully as he turns Law's arm over. Chopper is packing away his few scattered supplies and whips around with a sharp inhale, prepared to snap _Luffy!! Leave it alone!!_

Luffy lifts his eyes to Law and asks, "It feels better, right?"

"Yeah," Law says, and then wonders why in the world he even admits it. To distract himself from this slip, he looks at Chopper, "Thanks."

Luffy is beaming with pride, sharing a grin with his doctor, who's vain attempt to hide his embarrassment at the unexpected thank you is somewhat embarrassing in and of itself.

"It was no trouble," Chopper gushes, "Really. Any friend of Luffy's is a friend of mine~"

Luffy releases Law's arm slowly as he stands, seems to want to carry it away with him, reluctant to let go. Once Laws' fingers slip between his, though, he bounds over to Chopper and scoops the squeaking reindeer into his hands, climbs awkwardly over the pile of cushions separating their small niche from the rest of the partying animals and pirates, and joins the fray with a whoop of laughter.

Bepo stays behind, sitting on one of the cushions, arms crossed on his knees as he watches Law massaging the palm of his injured hand with his thumb.

It's tingling, the sensation of Luffy's warm fingers burning through the bandages.

Law turns to frown at Bepo.

"What."

"I didn't say anything," Bepo says, positively grinning. Apropos of nothing, he adds, "He's like that guy you always talk about. You know the one."

Law huffs in disagreement, but something in his chest startles at the comment. He hears Straw Hat's laughter, easily plucked from all the rest, and drags his eyes toward the commotion, fully aware that Bepo is watching him.

"I hadn't noticed," he says.

"Right," Bepo at least allows him that.

His new life is starting under a clear night sky, and this time he's not alone.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've been meaning to write something substantial for my favorite ace ship/QPR, and pride month seemed like the appropriate time to dust this sucker off! There are a lot of nuances in Luffy and Law's relationship that I really really like and I hope and did them justice! Luffy is an easy guy to write (though his perspective can be challenging), but Law is a little harder to figure out.
> 
> Let me know what you think!


End file.
